


And So It Goes

by kryptic_pear



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 02:04:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7739209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kryptic_pear/pseuds/kryptic_pear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a little ficlet about older!Rodney & John. After they've been retired from the field and put in desk jobs. Domestic self-indulgent fluff mostly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And So It Goes

Even now, years after the military has relegated John to the the highest command they can without letting him control anything too important and high enough to keep him busy enough to be quiet, even now he loads the pistol and puts it in the drawer next to the bed. Rodney has given him every statistic, all of the papers and even some of the psychobabble about the dangers of a loaded gun in your home. It has never done more than make John smile. His shoes are lined up by the bed like he's going to have to run out early in the morning for a shift. John checks his watch against the alarm clock, double-checks that he's set the alarm and tucks himself into bed.

Rodney remains camped out next to the television with two laptops until the last possible second. He's developed an obsession with the Food Channel and watches late night food programs and most especially Alton Brown, with something akin to worshipful devotion. When he is satisfied or notices that John has left he starts the long trek, stumbling into the bathroom and putting in eyedrops in some sort of vain hope that his eyes won't appear red and bleary in the morning. John only lets him take one laptop to bed, so he drags all of the cords from the living room up the stairs and into the bedroom. Whatever papers he's grading, all of the files he's looking over for the Stargate program and the laptop are dumped haphazardly onto the bed while he attempts to find some clothes that will serve as nightwear. John waits until he's just about to get into bed to remind him that he's forgotten to brush his teeth again.

Eventually, they both are there. John has usually settled down to read a book, the reading glasses he refuses to wear only now making their appearance. Rodney mutters and scribbles and clacks away for another thirty minutes before John turns off the light and forces him to stop. Rodney complains, pushing his cold feet against John's to make him squirm. John shoves his elbow into Rodney's side in retaliation. They move about, poking and having whispered wars, but it's only for a bit. Eventually their hands meet and their fingers twine and mostly Rodney sticks his face in John's neck and that's that, but sometimes John spreads out and pulls his leg over Rodney and his arm and holds on tight like he's going to be pulled from the bed in the morning.

It's not effective or time efficient, but it's what they _do_. When John's gone on work Rodney usually stays up until the wee hours of the morning like he's in grad school all over again and falls asleep spread out with his face mashed in John's pillow. John finds him bone-tired and clutching coffee when he returns. When Rodney's gone on lectures, John curls up on his side of the bed and goes to sleep at eight. He'd rather be asleep than face the empty house.

They've been doing it for twenty years and they'll probably keep on this way forever. And even Rodney can't count that high.


End file.
